Editing Hugo de Garis (section)

== Beliefs ==
===''The Artilect War''===
During his work on CAM-Brain, De Garis began publicly expressing concerns about [[existential risk from artificial intelligence]].<ref name="degaris96" /><ref name="v072" /><ref name="l369">{{cite magazine | last=Simpson | first=Roderick | title=The Brain Builder | magazine=WIRED | date=1997-12-01 | url=https://www.wired.com/1997/12/degaris/ | access-date=2025-03-04 | archive-date=10 May 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230510194550/https://www.wired.com/1997/12/degaris/ | url-status=live }}</ref> In 2005, he published the book ''The Artilect War: Cosmists vs. Terrans: A Bitter Controversy Concerning Whether Humanity Should Build Godlike Massively Intelligent Machines''.<ref name="aw">{{cite book | first=Hugo |last=de Garis | title=The Artilect War: Cosmists Vs. Terrans: A Bitter Controversy Concerning Whether Humanity Should Build Godlike Massively Intelligent Machines | isbn=978-0-88280-154-4 | year=2005 | publisher=ETC Publications | location=Palm Springs, CA}}</ref> In his book, De Garis predicts that by the end of the 21st century [[artificial superintelligence]]s, which he calls "artificial intellects" or "artilects", will threaten to attain [[hegemony]] over the Earth. He foresees a major war between supporters of artilects and their opponents, resulting in billions of deaths.<ref name="aw"/>{{Rp|234}}<ref>{{cite web | date=3 September 2007 | url=http://www.machineslikeus.com/cms/interview-hugo-de-garis.html | title=Machines Like Us interviews: Hugo de Garis | quote=gigadeath – the characteristic number of people that would be killed in any major late 21st century war, if one extrapolates up the graph of the number of people killed in major wars over the past 2 centuries | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071007081149/http://www.machineslikeus.com/cms/interview-hugo-de-garis.html | archive-date=7 October 2007}}</ref><ref name=artiwar>{{cite web|last1=de Garis|first1=Hugo|title=The Artilect War - Cosmists vs. Terrans|url=http://agi-conf.org/2008/artilectwar.pdf|website=agi-conf.org|access-date=14 June 2015|archive-date=24 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150724181906/http://agi-conf.org/2008/artilectwar.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> {{anchor|Cosmism}}The supporters he calls "Cosmists", who will support artilects that they expect to colonise the universe, leaving Earth and humans behind to a sooner-or-later extinction. The opponents, "Terrans", will focus on the fate of Earth and its inhabitants, and the existential risk posed by artilects. Differences between the two groups will be irreconcilable, leading to war. He also predicts a third group, "Cyborgs", who aim to become artilects themselves by altering their own human brains, rather than falling into obsolescence.<ref name=artiwar/> Although de Garis makes arguments in favor of each side throughout the book, he concludes that he is a Cosmist.<ref name="v072" />

Religious Studies professor Robert M. Geraci describes ''The Artilect War'' as a religious apocalyptic scenario.<ref name="x402">{{cite book | last=Geraci | first=Robert M. | title=Apocalyptic AI | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=2010-03-05 | isbn=978-0-19-988941-9 | page=23, 163}}</ref>